Is There a Discourse Topic in English?

There are some languages that will not allow you to have an indefinite subject, especially of transitive verbs. We introduce discourse topics before we have them do things. It's highly unnatural to put an inanimate object at the top of your discourse hierarchy. The man walked into the barn and got kicked by a horse. Here the co-reference and gapping requires us to use a passive in the second clause for normal English.